labour

labourlabour1 British English, labor American English ●●○S3W3AWL noun1work [uncountable]WORK/DO WORK work, especially physical workThe garage charges £30 an hour for labour.Many women do hard manual labour (=work with their hands).Workers withdrew their labour (=protested by stopping work) for twenty-four hours. →hard labour2workers [uncountable]WORKER all the people who work for a company or in a countrya shortage of skilled laborWe need to reduce our labour costs.3baby [singular, uncountable]BABY/HAVE A BABY the process of giving birth to a babyin labourMeg was in labour for ten hours.Diane went into labour at 2 o'clock.a long/short/difficult labourThe labour pains were unbearable.labour ward/room (=a room in a hospital where women give birth)4 →a labour of love5 →somebody’s laboursCOLLOCATIONS – Meaning 2: all the people who work for a company or in a countryADJECTIVES/NOUN + labourskilled/unskilled labourEmployers want to keep skilled labour because of the cost of training.cheap labour (=workers who have low wages)Women and children were used as cheap labour.casual labour (=workers who do jobs that are not permanent)The industry makes use of a large supply of casual labour.child labourThe shoe company was accused of using child labour in its factory.slave labourCotton was grown using slave labor.labour + NOUNthe labour force (=all the people who work in a country or for a company)We need an educated labour force.the labour supply (=all the people available to work)What was the effect of the war on the labour supply?the labour market (=the people looking for work and the jobs available)the percentage of women in the labour marketa labour shortageImmigrants came into the country to fill the labour shortage.labour costsThere was pressure to keep down labour costs.

Labour• In 1979 Labour was obviously in a panic - that set the mood.• The case for abolition was made more urgent as a result of the experience of Labour in government after 1974.• The fact is that Labour wants to keep the polltax so that it can attack us with it.• Weizman, who had by then become a minister, soon joined the Labour party.• They will get it under Labour.Labour MP/candidate• Neither of these seats was to return a Labour candidate even under the exceptionally favourablecircumstances of July 1945.• Standing nearby was Darlington Labour candidate Alan Milburn with a group of his supporters.• In 1922 he became the Labour candidate for the University of Londonconstituency, but he died before the election.• Yesterday a campaignaide for Mr Milburn said the Labour candidate arrived as the whole situation was being resolved.From Longman Business Dictionarylabourla‧bour /ˈleɪbə-ər/ British English, labor American English noun [uncountable]1work involving a lot of physical or mentaleffortThe garage charges £65 an hour for labour.those involved in repetitive, unskilled manual labour (=work that involves using your hands)2HUMAN RESOURCES withdraw your labour British English to stop working at your job for a period of time as a protestUnion members voted to withdraw their labour for 24 hours.3HUMAN RESOURCESall the people who work for a company or in a countrya shortage of skilled laborSome US companies relocate to Mexico in search of cheap labor (=people who are paid very low wages).The airline’s labor costs are amongst the lowest in the industry. →casual labour →child labour →contract labour →direct labour →forced labour →indirect labour →organized labour →sweated labour